About CANWI

Our Mission

Become recognized as a trusted source of nutrition and wellness information for our companion animals.

Goals

Fund research projects in companion animal nutrition and wellness

Support professional training programs in nutrition and integrative medicine

Offer Nutrition and Wellness Education for pet owners and the pet vested community

Accomplishments

Funded an ACVN Nutrition Residency Program

Pet Owner Nutrition and Wellness Educational Forums

The Advanced Glycation End Products or dietary (AGEs) Study

Background

Two veterinarians Drs. Karen Becker and Donna Raditic recognized the need to provide education to the pet vested community. There’s tons of information on the internet, but what should a pet parent believe? What are the credentials of the individuals providing the information? Is there a unbiased scientific base for the information? With this in mind, they saw a need to form CANWI as an independent grass roots organization whose long term goal is to be a “credible and reliable source of companion animal information.”

From the start, CANWI has been at work. Thanks to our supporters, we funded a 2 year Veterinary Nutrition Residency at the University of Tennessee, offered several pet parent forums across the Country, launched an ambitious research project related to heat processed foods. We also formed a Scientific Committee, whose members are nationally known scientists, to monitor our independent research.

Here’s what we know so far: Many of us are scooping processed dry food into a bowl or opening the same canned food every day. Is this really the best nutrition we can offer? Why do human nutritionists tell us to eat LESS processed foods and more fresh foods?

In January, 2018 we launched The Advanced Glycation End Products or dietary (AGEs). Dietary Study. AGEs have been associated with chronic diseases, aging and even cancer. And preliminary data estimates some pet foods may contain over 122 times the AGEs found in processed human foods! Is that acceptable?

We assembled a team of veterinary nutritionists, food scientists, identified specialized labs and a prestigious Veterinary College to work on this ambitious research. They are looking at the role of dietary AGEs in pet foods and compare feeding processed pet foods to fresh food and raw pet diets. While we expect to have a preliminary report on the dog study issued later this year, we propose to extend and expand the AGE study to include healthy cats and cats with diabetes. Research in cats, especially their nutritional needs and diseases is scarce despite cat ownership exceeding dog ownership in the United States. We want to be sure you are serving up the best nutrition into that bowl every single day. Our team continues to work tirelessly on developing education programs that will result in meaningful change. Hopefully that change will lead to a brighter future.

We believe that through our own independent research, we can answer the question: “Why aren’t our companion animals living longer?